{"id":129739,"date":"2026-02-11T05:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129739\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T05:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:02:23","slug":"ny-republicans-avoid-primary-with-pick-to-run-against-ag-letitia-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129739\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Republicans avoid primary with pick to run against AG Letitia James"},"content":{"rendered":"

GARDEN CITY \u2013\u00a0State Republicans nominated a former prosecutor to run against Attorney General Letitia James Tuesday \u2014 avoiding a primary when a second candidate dropped of the race at the 11th hour. <\/p>\n

Saritha Komatireddy got the nod for AG after winning a substantial share of the weighted vote over Khurram Dara, as the statewide Republican ticket continued to solidify at the state GOP convention behind gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I was chasing terrorists across the Middle East, I saw right here in my backyard in New York public safety completely deteriorated,\u201d Komatireddy said, touting her record with the Eastern District before the nomination.<\/p>\n

Saritha Komatireddy locked down the GOP nomination for attorney general Tuesday with 86% of the weighted convention vote. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom now until November I will prosecute the political case against Letitia James, and unlike her, I win my cases,\u201d she added to roaring applause during her nomination address.<\/p>\n

Komatireddy, who was backed by powerful GOP counties like Erie County, garnered a sizable 84% of the weighted convention vote despite Dara pleading his case and traveling around the state ahead of the convention.<\/p>\n

He received 14% of the weighted convention vote and backed out after the vote.<\/p>\n

Dara, whose background stems from the cryptocurrency world<\/a>, had centered his pitch around using the office\u2019s power over regulatory matters to improve New York\u2019s strict business climate. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew York\u2019s office of the attorney general has become one of the most powerful offices in the country, regulating entire businesses and industries, being used to settle political scores and ultimately raising the price of goods,\u201d Dara said.<\/p>\n

Joseph Hernandez was officially locked in a Republicans\u2019 candidate for state comptroller Tuesday. Vaughn Golden\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman and running mate Todd Hood are expected to receive the state party\u2019s nomination for governoer on Wednesday. Vaughn Golden \/ NY Post<\/p>\n

The race took a major turn when party favorite Michael Henry, who previously ran for AG in 2022, shockingly backed out<\/a> of the race late last month.<\/p>\n

Sources said Blakeman\u2019s team had told Dara to drop his bid entirely ahead of the convention vote Tuesday afternoon, though he evidently refused.<\/p>\n

The party also formally voted to don Wall Street investor Joseph Hernandez as its candidate for state comptroller.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccountability is unfortunately something not so common in today\u2019s politics, especially in Albany, and we\u2019re going to bring accountability back,\u201d Hernandez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said.<\/p>\n

Hernandez also revealed in his speech his commitment to invest $1 billion from the state\u2019s pension fund into Israel bonds.<\/p>\n

Blakeman and his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, are expected to receive the party\u2019s nomination Wednesday.<\/p>\n

No Republican has won a statewide office since former Gov. George Pataki\u2019s re-election in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GARDEN CITY \u2013\u00a0State Republicans nominated a former prosecutor to run against Attorney General Letitia James Tuesday \u2014 avoiding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[393,10447,426,398,57,9,11,10,13895,10232,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-129739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-comptroller","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-letitia-james","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-ny-governor-election-2026","17":"tag-tom-dinapoli","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}